Class 5A power Little Rock Christian owned the line of scrimmage and it showed on the scoreboard Friday night at Warrior Field in Little Rock.
Senior tailback Jayvean Dyer-Jones ran 18 times for 187 yards and 4 touchdowns in a 41-8 victory over Class 7A Little Rock Central in the season opener for both teams.
The Warriors led 14-0 at halftime and finished with 431 total yards, including 292 rushing, on 55 plays.
Dyer-Jones, a cousin of former Little Rock Christian star tailback Michael Dyer, the state's all-time career rushing leader, scored on runs of 1 and 31 yards in the first half and 34 and 4 yards in the third quarter. Senior backup tailback Brian Gittens added touchdown runs of 21 and 9 yards in the fourth quarter. He finished with 91 rushing yards on 11 carries.
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The Tigers were limited to 92 total yards on 48 plays.
"I do feel like both the offensive and defensive line controlled the game and that's huge," said Little Rock Christian Coach Eric Cohu, who has led the Warriors to three consecutive Class 5A finals and the title in 2018. "We have to clean some things up offensively, but I'm so proud of our defense holding a very talented Central team to zero points."
Central's only touchdown came on a 70-yard kickoff return by senior Bjay Sisk with 9:43 remaining in the third quarter. Dyer-Jones had scored on a 34-yard touchdown run 11 seconds earlier to stretch Little Rock Christian's lead to 21-0.
Dyer-Jones swept left end for his final touchdown and a 28-8 lead with 4:21 remaining in the third quarter. Dyer-Jones' three other touchdown runs, and both by Gittens, were into the teeth of the defense.
Sophomore Walker White, who was making his first career varsity start at quarterback, completed 9 of 17 passes for 139 yards.
"We knew a lot of veterans were in the box on sides of the ball," Cohu said. "We return a lot of defensive linemen and linebackers and offensive linemen and running backs. That's our returning guys. We made some plays through the air early in the first half. We're ahead and were able to run the clock out."
The outcome spoiled the Central coaching debut of George Shelton, who had previously led programs at Augusta, Dollarway, Watson Chapel and Dumas.
"We're under construction is the best way to say it," Shelton said. "We're just so early in the process of building a good football team."
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